


Mithridate

by esmiedo



Series: Venom series [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M, a lot about village infrastructure, dyslexic author no beta, hot new take an the village hidden in the sound, kind of a slice of life but naruto style, kind of an ok guy if you squint orochimaru, only a little angst, sequel to venom, this time there should actually be cute family themes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:00:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24048583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/esmiedo/pseuds/esmiedo
Summary: To begin as nothing and grow to be something; that is the nature of all living things.
Relationships: Hatake Sakumo/Orochimaru
Series: Venom series [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1734832
Comments: 21
Kudos: 220





	1. Dawn

**Author's Note:**

> If you have not yet read Vemon, please do before reading this fanfiction. Thank you!

There is something beautiful in the audacity of humanity. The ability to be so very ostentatious and yet so very meek. The ability to stagger onward even as tears streamed down their face. Human’s were wonderfully terrible, monsters in their own angelic way. Orochimaru was no stranger to what it meant to be human, the vulnerability of it all. As much as he had once run from it, he knew that there was no truly escaping it.

It’s a tragedy, a comedy, the only difference between the two is in the tone by which you speak.

The rolling hills of the land of Rice were green and beautiful. It wasn’t the first time Orochimaru had seen this land, but it was his team’s. Anko made appropriate sounds of appreciation as she gazed around, always having to announce her presence in one way or another, afraid to be forgotten. Kabuto smiled mildly, cataloging the plants around them, probably already deciding which he could use and which he couldn’t for any given ailment they may have. Finally, Kimimaro stood at attention, no matter what Orochimaru did he couldn’t get the boy to just relax and enjoy the life he had given him.

Orochimaru was happy with his lot in life now, he did not seek immortality or the taste of thousands of jutsu on his tongue. He was content to die one day; it was a revelation that shocked him. He had always seen death as a weakness, something to overcome. He supposed he was tired, that his eternity seemed just a bit too long.

He didn’t particularly care one way or another as to why he was finished fantasizing over living for eternity, it didn't matter in the end. What mattered was this was the beginning of a new dawn, the start of something amazing, and it was going to be shaped by his hands. He would live forever one way or another, just not how he intended it the first time.

Orochimaru would swallow the world whole and reform it into something he could be proud to call his home.

* * *

“Thank you for granting me an audience, it is an honor.” Orochimaru’s kimono sleeve brushed his leg as he lowered his head shallowly to the man before him. He was somewhat garish, gaudy in a particularly eye-gouging way, Orochimaru assumed it was because the other man had very little power and had to make up for it by throwing his weight around in other ways.

He was a Daimyo with gold, but that was all he had.

“It is not every day you get to meet legends, mind you.” The man leaned back laughing, the gold eyeliner around his eyes cracking slightly. Orochimaru could hear the creaking of wires that were not there, the trap set in place.

“A legend?” Orochimaru paused meekly, watching the other man from under his lashes “I assure you that I am less a legend and more a man here on a desperate bid for his people.”

“What would the leaf want with me.” The man waved a hand absently at a servant, the young woman scrambled about them, slow and clumsy to Orochimaru’s eyes. Shaking, she poured them both some tea, Orochimaru smiled blandly at her before running his charka over it to check for poison.

There was none.

“I have not been a part of the leaf for nearly three years now. I am sure that part of the Hokage holds onto the hope I will return,” He watched the Daimyo sip his tea, carefully drinking some of it after the other man had finished his first sip, “but instead I come to you.”

“Speak plainly, you have my attention.”

“I want to make a village with you.”

In the silence, there was a hollow thunk of the Sōzu in the daimyo’s garden. The trap groaned in Orochimaru’s ear, waiting like a dog, drooling at the chance to snap its jaws around the Daimyo.

“Excuse me?”

“With your money, we could easily fund a village,” Orochimaru slowly reached into his obi and pulled out a scroll, showing it to the samurai posted around the room before setting it on the table, “a Village hidden in the Sound.”

“This sounds ridiculous, why would I want a village?”

“The land of rice has been fortunate enough to avoid getting into any major conflict, but your nation is growing. You need a military if you mean to grow any more than you already have.”

“And you and your ten people want to be that army.”

“One hundred civilians and fifty shinobi, my lord.”

“Excuse me?” The Daimyo stuttered, the trap snapping around him as Orochimaru’s eyes gleamed.

“Yes, my lord, many of the civilians want to undergo shinobi training as well.” Orochimaru curled his fingers under his chin frowning slightly, “We haven’t had the resources to train them in anything but basic self-defense.”

“You believe civilians can grow to be good shinobi?”

“Of course,” He smiled, his eyes like the molten gold that had formed the pins he had back holding back his hair, “my own apprentices are both civilian born, after all. Besides that, if you do not believe me, we have been protecting a few of the clans born to the mist. I am sure you remember the Yuki clan.”

“How much money are you requesting?”

“It’s not much I need from you,” Orochimaru’s smile was all teeth as he leaned forward carefully unfolding a fan to hide it behind, “I need land from you, and your political support. Ideally we will be partners, you and I, like all kages are with their daimyo.”

The daimyo threw his head back and laughed, “where do I sign?”

* * *

If one is to believe the study of population from a sociology standpoint there are three things that every healthy population has. A virtue nutritive, or food which is a variable outcome depending on social organization. A virtue generative, the population growth itself, or a constant of the unlimited potential inherent in human nature. Finally, there is commerce, the thing by which the population produces to trade or entertain. This is the work of Botero and Malthus, two separate scholars, the first of which was Botero, later Malthus extended on what Botero found with his positive and preventive checks as well as his misery and vices.

Orochimaru may have been a shinobi, but he was a scientist and scholar above all else. He understood psychology and sociology, biology and chemistry, physics, and everything else he could get his hands on.

He was going to use this to his advantage.

First, a population must grow and stabilize, but at a rate in which the amount of food they produced could keep up. That meant running propaganda for both village pride, one or two children households, delayed marriages, and other contraceptives until they had a secure measure of food and trade. It would take at least a season for their rice to be ready to harvest, along with whatever else they grow. They would have to be careful only to hunt a little at a time to ensure the wildlife was not affected and the ecosystem tanked. There were so many variables and so little time to prepare because his people were coming.

Orochimaru hated relying on anyone but he would be relying on the Daimyo for food, once the village was up and running they could start offering wares other than simply shinobi expertise.

The world was his to take, his to remake, and somehow this was so much more than he could ever imagine.

“Orochimaru?” A soft voice called out from somewhere behind him. He hadn’t even sensed their approach and it took everything in him not to simply attack.

“Yes, Kabuto?”

“I have spread the news to the other factions, they will slowly begin moving our way in a month to give us time to get housing set up.”

Orochimaru smiles, slowly reaching out to fix Kabuto’s messy hair before patting his face, “Thank you, where is Anko?”

“Tormenting the masses.”

“Oh,” He said, widening his eyes in false surprise, “Really now? All alone?”

Kabuto laughed, a warm feeling filled Orochimaru’s chest, “She has Kimimaro with her.”

He still had flashes sometimes, of seeing his Kabuto dying, shredded before him, dead. They were different, the Kabuto of before and the Kabuto of now, they were all different. Orochimaru himself was different now and really the difference in his children was a reflection of the change in himself.

“Ah,” He stepped forward quietly making his way across the grass and into the clearing the ten shinobi he was traveling with had gathered to make a large camp in, “Then our people are not being tortured too rigorously.”

“He’s soft on her,” Kabuto sighed, easily timing his steps with Orochimaru’s own, “Let’s her get away with far too much.”

He watched as Anko laughed, throwing her head back in her own carefree way and pressing her shoulder against Kimimaro’s.

They say to become a god, you had to eat the flesh of one. They say if you survive it, you were a god all along. Orochimaru had seen a god, her cruelty and power, but in the moments between their laughter, he felt godly. He had opened his mouth wide and consumed the moon and the god within it, sliding it down his throat where it settled deep in his belly. Orochimaru was more monster than man, but among them, he was a just and kind god.

After all, they demanded no less.

* * *

Their protection would lie in the bells. Right now they were little more than a camp of one hundred and fifty people, half were working on building the actual village with working sewage and a comprehensive layout that would be conducive to expansion later while the other half worked on farmland. In the meantime, each tent had a set of bells outside it, bells that Orochimaru had spent the last three years working on and perfecting. They were rather ingenious and would go a long way to keeping out murders and other ill-meaning people as well as provide the village with its protection.

The bells were covered in seals he worked on with Jiraiya and an old Uzumaki he picked up and coerced into joining him. They were genjutsu based, with instructions on how to build them an S ranked secret that only the Village hidden in the sound would know. It took extensive research on the areas of the brain certain genjustsu affected and understanding the base idea of where intent comes from.

The most interesting aspect of intention is the different levels of temporal activity a person goes through to have them. What makes the bells the most interesting is that they only interact with intentions of action, parsing through killing intent and the intent to harm. The only problem with this is that sometimes it does not discern through intent to harm physically and intent to harm emotionally. It doesn't happen often, but for some people, the distinction between the two is so transparent the bells pick up on both as being the same.

The key, Orochimaru has found, is in the limbic system. The limbic system and hypothalamus is where a lot of emotions originate, parsing through the emotions involved in an attack, be it emotional or physical, was the key in understanding what seals and how to use them in a way that was not detectable by a genin. A high-level Jonin could probably be able to break the genjutsu with relative ease, Orochimaru knows that Kabuto and Anko find it almost laughable, and the more you are exposed to the bells the less effective they become to the point that Orochimaru almost finds them somewhat useless, however, any protection is better than none.

There would be levels of the genjutsu where at the outer edges there would be the strangest of the bells, it would turn away most assassins intend on murdering people or general murders traveling into the village. Then deeper in the village there would be lighter ones that would just be influencer rather than a true deterrent. The people of the village would know the bells are the protection when they grew old enough to, only the adults would know until then and protect the secret from outsiders as best they could. They didn’t know how the bells work but they were definitely confident in them.

The village itself would be on a grid layout, with a market, set guild offices to help with artisans and builders, an area for the banks, police and other basic niceties for order, a shinobi district which was relatively large for the low amount they currently had, and a civilian distract. Orochimaru had taken into consideration the fact that he was separating the ninja for the civilian and it was made aware to everyone in the village that this was for the civilian’s protection. Ninja tended to set up traps in their homes so they could feel safe, especially those like the ones that Orochimaru had picked up to call his own. The shinobi district was even separated by rank so that a Genin would wander up to a Jonin’s door and end up skewered.

He was looking into making a contract with the Yamanaka through the Leaf so he could gain a few individuals capable of giving mental health evaluations and treatments. With that said that was in the future, he had now to consider.

“Hello, Tsunade.” Orochimaru smiled lightly as he sipped his tea, watching his teammate sip at her own. It was her favorite blend, a more herbal blend from the sand. It was an interesting tea, made from a leafless shrub found in the desert. It was far from Orochimaru’s favorite, its taste rather bitter while he tended to prefer the more fragrant and flowery blends.

“You called me here for a reason, so spit it out.”

“Always straight to the point, what if I wanted to talk to my dear friend.”

“You may have changed some since we fought in the war, Orochimaru, but your still the blunt kid that used to follow around at my heels.”

Orochimaru’s smile grew larger before wilting slightly at the ages, “I miss you.”

Tsunade was silent for a moment, running her finger through the edges of her pigtails, “I miss you too ‘maru.”

“Join me?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m making a village, a village hidden in the sound. Join me?”

“I can’t.” She whispered into the space between then, “you know I can’t.”

“But you can Tsunade.” Orochimaru reached forward, running the tips of his fingers over the back of her hand, “Come home?”

It would break him if she said no, he knew it would. Sakumo had already denied him and he knew that Jiraiya would never leave the leaf. The only people he had was Kabuto, Anko, and Kimimaro. They would be enough if she said no, but there would always be a place for her in his heart one that he would never be able to fill.

“What use is a medic that can’t look at blood ‘maru?” She sighed.

“I don’t need a medic, I need Tsunade. I need my teammate by my side making rules and regulations for a village we create.”

They sat in silence for a moment, the space between them growing with every second. Orochimaru was terrified, the skin along his neck and at his cheek stretch strangely as the scars there ached.

He had given up so much already.

“Okay.”

Orochimaru drew in a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“Okay?”

“Yeah,” She smiled at him her eyes warm, “we can do this, can’t we?”

Orochimaru smiled back, his heart filling with a joy he thought he would never have, “Yes, I do believe we can.” He reached out again and this time she turned her hand to accept his, “Together.”

“Together.” She agreed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am kind of struggling with writer's block with this story, so the updates will be sporadic. I am sorry for that.
> 
> Either way, welcome.


	2. Peak

For a long time Orochimaru had wanted to be a Kage. He had wanted it for all the right reasons, or wrong if you look at it from another perspective. He wanted to do right by the village, he wanted to make them into something great, make his home into the ideal vision he had dreamed about. The intentions remain the same, but the ideal dream had changed, now he factors in the happiness of his people as much as he does their survival. He could remember a time before all of them, after all, when he was left in pieces. He could remember when he crawled to Naruto’s bright presences like a sunflower turning to the sun and again, when he felt the agony of his own death being boiled away by the Kyuubi’s chakra. He remembered anguishing in emotional and physical pain, of losing and being lost.

He never wanted them to feel that.

It wasn’t a selfless thing; this want to save them. He wanted to be great, after all, and if he could protect them from themselves, give them something as close to a utopia as he could, wouldn’t he be great?

They would be an army built from refugees, they would remember a time before and bask in the presence of something new they built with their own hands.

“What do you think of accepting rogues?” Orochimaru leaned back in his desk as he glanced at Tsunade.

“Sure, yeah,” She drawled, “let the murderers in.”

“Aren’t we all murders?”

“They turned their back on their village,” She shuffled through a few papers, shooting him a look over the top of them before taking a sip of Sake.

“So did we.” He offered a paper to her; one he had written on a new mission ranking system. He disliked the way Konoha only let Genin do D ranks when Academy students would do well to be utilized for the village doing the chores. It was also a good opportunity for them to begin networking among the village, having a secondary rank added that Academy students would benefit the village. A minor tweak of what they knew wouldn’t hurt either, most villages were based on Konaha’s own infrastructure anyways seeing as it was the first village formed.

“Why are you so adamant on having these people in our village when they could just turn on us?”

“Think of it this way,” Orochimaru placed his face in his hand and traced one of the characters on the paper in front of him, “We bring in rogue ninja, even if it’s just to offer our hospital to them, we begin to amass a name for ourselves that is kind to anyone who walks through our gates. We are as much the so-called good guys as The Leaf is, maybe even more so, so more people come to us for medical treatment and other missions that a ninja can do for them. This expands our research in the medical field if nothing else.”

“It could easily backfire,” she countered, “the other villages will become angry with us, think we are protecting the people who betrayed them.”

“That is true, of course, all plans come with an inherent risk,” Orochimaru nodded, “but if we offer some sort of moral high ground, like say we cannot deny anyone healing and promise some kind of trade agreement where they work for us temporarily we could do it. Especially if they agree to have a tracking and monitoring seal placed on them with the same type of seal that is on the bells. If that seal is adapted to be placed on a person, it will be nearly impossible to break so we would have no worry of them turning on us while in the village. It is a reasonable amount of protection for our people as well as paints us as kind and benevolent to both the members of the court and to civilians all over. Anyone who tried to attack us would risk looking like the one who antagonizes a response from us.”

Tsunade snorted, “I think you are risking too much.”

“Give it some thought,” Orochimaru responded, smiling blandly as he scratched lightly at his cheek, “we have a great deal of time before this is even a decision we have to make.”

“Stop scratching at your scars,” She lunged forward and Orochimaru, feeling lazy, let her grab his hand without a fight, “You’re only going to hurt yourself.”

“Yes,” Orochimaru returned with a deadpan expression, “whatever would I do without you. Saving me from so much pain.”

“Shut up, you ass,” Tsunade tightened her grip to a painful degree around his wrist, it was a miscalculation letting her grab it as he did, “I am not the one who begged you to be here.”

With a quick flick of his other hand he slid a needle into the pressure point at her wrist making her hand immediately spasm so he could break her hold, “Ah, but I could do without the manhandling.”

“If you would rather, I could punch you.”

“I’ll pass.”

“You sure?” She closed her hand into a fist and reared back slightly with a grin, “I have one just for you right here.”

Orochimaru tensed up ever so slightly, ready to disengage from the desk at the slightest movement, “We have papers in front of us, I would rather not collect them,” He paused, “again, that is.”

“That was a hassle.” She nodded with a snort before backing down, “Speaking of the hospital we should probably talk a little about that.”

“That is your domain, I leave you to do as you see fit.” Orochimaru dismissed. If he were being honest the hospital is what was going to make them different from every other village, he couldn’t advertise his research into bloodlines or inventions he was looking into until they were sure they could actually do something with that side of their plan. Orochimaru had already given her all the notes he had on how to make the rooms more ergonomic, how to sterilize more efficiently, and learning methods to help train new recruits. He wanted everyone, even the civilians to know basic first aid. He wanted surgeons and experts leading the way into research, he wanted scientific breakthroughs and so much more than he could have if he wasn’t the one in charge.

Education was also something that he was adamant about for all the people who live in his village, it was not something he was going to force on them because he knew if one did not want to learn they simply would not. The access to education would be free, if he could spin it right, where everyone knew how to read and how to do basic math, it would then be up to the students to find work outside of the school. This work could be moving on to the ninja academy, moving on to higher education to be a scientist or medic, or picking up a trade.

“You have big dreams Orochimaru,” Tsunade said slowly, her honeyed eyes gleaming in the light coming through the window, “I’m scared what will happen to you if we fail.”

“We will not fail.”

She paused, studying his face, searching for something that she wasn’t even sure she was looking for, “I hope so, by the Gods, I truly do.”

* * *

They each had a scroll. Anko was sprawled across the floor, her side pressed against Orochimaru’s back, reading one on poison making he had written when he was first learning. Kimimaro laid with his head in Orochimaru’s lap, his eyes closed the scroll on a new taijutsu he had been reading resting against his chest. Kabuto leaned lightly against Orochimaru’s side, his knees curled, and his scroll with carefully drawn medical seals laid out before him. 

It was nice, being surrounded by them. He knew in the other room Tsunade had already gone to bed. He could hear Shizune puttering around down the hall. Everyone had a home now, and they had cut back the workers working on housing and were now with half the works working on grocery stores and other buildings that, while important, were not as important as the buildings that had been built first. The community helped each other and those that wanted to start businesses filed the correct paperwork and then worked with the community to make their business. The rest of the people were working on making things like pottery, glasswork, honing their craft in metalwork. Orochimaru had already invented a number of things to help their people in the building process and on in their general living. 

Orochimaru now lived with his three students, his old teammate, and her student. It was crowded in a way that he was unused to, he often felt claustrophobic, but it was times like this when he felt truly at home.

When he finally felt like he wasn’t alone.

They had been sitting in silence, minding their own tasks but enjoying each other’s presence for the last hour.

Until it was broken.

“What happens if we don’t succeed?” Kabuto asked in a quiet voice, copying down a seal he found particularly useful onto another scroll to research later.

“We will,” Orochimaru responded without pause. Tsunade had the same worry, it was kind of annoying everyone around him was so worried he was going to fail.

There was just the scratch of his brush on the paper for a moment before he turned, looking at Orochimaru from over the top of his glasses, “But what if we don’t.”

Orochimaru sighed, finally he placed the scroll down and turned his head enough to glaze back at Kabuto. The strands of hair he had missed when he pulled back his hair earlier brushed across his shoulder, and for a moment all he could do was look at the younger male. He had grown so much, in more ways than one, and Orochimaru was proud. He looked healthier than before, happier, less bitter and wilted.

He was as much Orochimaru’s child as any biological one could. All three of them were.

“There is no room for hesitation, Kabuto,” He said simply, “No room for doubt. We will succeed, and that is all we can think about.”

Kabuto’s eyes darted between Orochimaru’s for a moment before he smiled, “Okay.”

“I don’t know why you even questioned it.” Anko snickered, “you know there’s no way he could fail us.”

Orochimaru knew that there was more to that then there seemed.

And for the first time he held something like fear in his heart.

* * *

There was a mountain at their back, taller than the Hokage monument, it loomed above them. On the other side was dryer land, land that they wander and search and learn from.

Nonetheless, there was a mountain at their back, it cast a shadow over the land, a shadow over Orochimaru’s face. He trudged up a path that many before him had and made it up the mountainside, it was steep but not so steep it couldn’t be traveled by a civilian. It was muddy from recent rains, he didn’t bother to use chakra, and his feet sunk into the ground in some places with wet sloshes. The higher he got the rockier It became until, finally, he found what he was looking for.

A shrine to the God of the mountain. No one was sure who they were yet, but every mountain had a God and the people of the Sound had found that it was time to sacrifice to them. This was Orochimaru’s first visit, it would have been remised in him if he did not visit the shrine at least once every other month to offer some sort of sacrifice or the more religious of his people would begin to think him cursing their new village by bringing the wrath of a God on it.

The shrine was built nicely, a humble little thing maintained by all the people that lived here, it was already well-loved. He found the alter easily, Orochimaru bowed his head and lit the incense he had brought. He slides carefully onto his knees and placed his sacrifices, a bit whole white snakeskin from his personal summons, some poisonous flowers from his personal garden, and a note dictating that the flowers were poison and to be careful when handling them. The idea behind all of them was to give something personal in the snakeskin, something useful in the poison though if there truly was a God Orochimaru doubted they would need it, and a warning to whoever else may come with the note.

Placing his hands gently on his thighs he closed his eyes and held a moment of silence.

In that silence he felt a presence behind him. Extending his sense, he couldn’t find anything but something inside him warned him that there was someone dangerous near him.

Orochimaru opened his eyes, nodded once, and waited for the incense to finish burning while he meditated. His senses were open but still he found himself at peace, accepted in a way that he only found with Tsunade and Sakumo.

The incense burned out and he rose.

There was a mountain at the back of the village and a God curled around the top, something you could barely see through the clouds. They watched over the village hidden in the Sound, watching as it rose, a civilization they knew they would one day see fall.

For now, Orochimaru assumed, they watched

* * *

There is a saying passed among different villages tweaked a bit depending on where you are from. For the leaf it is ‘Of flowers, the cherry blossom; of men, the ninja.’ It is to mean that of flowers the cherry blossom is the best and of men the ninja is. For the Sand the same saying is twisted, ‘Of flowers, the belladonna; of men, the ninja.’ With a new flower it takes on a bit of a new meaning, it could be said that of the flowers the deadly nightshade, Atropa belladonna, is the most poisonous and of men the ninja is the deadliest. If you knew of the culture, you know Belladonna means ‘beautiful women’ and is considered the most interesting and compelling of flowers in the Sand due to the fact it is both beautiful and deadly. The trend continues in each village painting the Ninja in a beautiful and idealized light. In the Sound the saying has popped up as well.

‘Of flowers, the rice flower; of men, the protector.’

This is an entirely new take on the saying and Orochimaru found it interesting. If they were following the trend, then of the flowers the rice flower was the most beautiful to them. It would make sense since it meant food would soon be on the way, it meant they would be protected in winter and their families would be fed since rice was a large part of the Sound’s diet and export.

It was interesting refuges compared this to protectors.

Orochimaru leaned back and listened to the bells around them for a moment before leaving his office to help with whatever he could.

He would have to ensure they felt protected.

* * *

There was a banging on his door. Tsunade stood in her doorway as the shadows of the night crept around them.

“What is it,” Orochimaru asked as soon as he set eyes on a soot-covered man as rain fell from the sky around him.

“Lord Orochimaru, there has been a fire.”

“Where?”

“The eastern edge.”

Orochimaru shunshined a few times in rapid succession until he reached a point he was close enough to see the glow in the night and then traveled as quickly as he could over roof tops. Once he reached the flames, he quickly pulled the rain around him into a water jutsu he didn’t bother to consciously name and began to put out the fire that now stretched an entire block. His family arrived shortly and began to enter the building to check for survivors, those they found were treated to the best of the two medics abilities.

“What the hell happened,” Orochimaru snapped at the man that had run to collect him as he arrived next to him.

“I don’t know.” He whispered, barely audible over the rain.

“That’s not good enough.” Orochimaru nearly snarled, “Hurry and help the others, I am almost done putting out the fire.”

The man closed his eyes before nodding and dropping down.

With another twist of his chakra, Orochimaru put out the last of the dwindling fire and dropped down to help as well.

It was going to be a long night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NEAT CLIFFHANGER LADY CAN I HAVE ONE
> 
> Anyway I hope you enjoy this story, it is going to be kind of the building of the Sound for like a few chapters and then dip a bit into the Leaf as political shit happens.
> 
> Something I found cool: the saying 'Of flowers, the cherry blossom; of men, the ninja' is a spin-off of the Japanese saying 'Of flowers, the cherry blossom; of men, the warrior.' Saying that my girlfriend would say I'm like one of those parents that's showing you, my readers, something I think is cool and going "ISN'T IT NEAT? ISN'T IT COOL? ARN'T YOU HAVING FUN?" Kind of agree.


End file.
